Keeping Watch
by TaliaThompson
Summary: Ray thought he had an eye on Clay's location, but when the team arrives Clay is nowhere in sight.
1. Chapter 1

The last place Bravo wanted to be right now was sitting in the briefing room. It was 3 am on Saturday when they all got the call. A Saturday that was supposed to be a much deserved day off for all of them after a hell week of training, but yet here they were.

Mandy could tell they weren't happy about being there. Hell, she wasn't happy about it either, but her boss insisted Bravo was the only team capable of pulling off the mission and refused to let it go to another team.

As she began filling them in on the details she noticed Jason rolling his eyes, Ray laughing at Jason's annoyance, Sonny practically falling asleep, Trent messing with Sonny, Brock petting Cerb, and Clay staring into no man's land. "Are any of you going to take this seriously?" She asked annoyed, looking over at Blackburn and hoping for a little back up.

"I just don't understand why it was so important that we were sent, it's not even our rotation." Jason huffed out.

"Not my call. Trust me." Mandy replied as she finished briefing them on the mission. She expected the attitudes on this one and didn't blame a single one of them.

Once the briefing was over, they all gathered their equipment and boarded the plane. "Get some rest, it's gonna be a long flight." Blackburn ordered, knowing they didn't have to be told twice.

"I'm sick of this shit." Sonny mumbled under his breath as he set up his hammock.

"Middle of the night wake up calls on our day off?" Clay asked.

"Well yeah, but no. These high level government employees getting kidnapped in foreign countries cause they think their above the rules and nothing bad will happen to them." Sonny started and Clay immediately regretted saying anything. "Well guess what, they're not and they do. These guys were specifically told DO. NOT. LEAVE. THE. PERIMITER. And what do they do? The fucking leave and go missing."

"Are you done your little soapbox rant there Sonny? Some of us would like to get some sleep." Ray said looking over at Sonny from his hammock.

Clay chuckled as he got comfortable in his hammock, laughing even harder when Sonny gave him the 'what are you laughing at?' look.

It didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep. They were all exhausted and slept almost the entire flight to Somalia.

When they landed it was like a switch was flipped. They were still annoyed about being there, but didn't let it show. They were all business, with the usual jabs at each other to lighten the mood.

They were given part of the day to get situated and familiar with the base before they were thrown into the briefing room to come up with their plan.

There were three men that were taken and based on some solid investigating, they believed they had the location of where they were being held. It was supposed to be an easy grab. Ray and Clay were going to enter an abandoned building and go high, about a block away from where the rest of the team was going to grab the three missing men.

No one knew they were there, which was supposed to make it an easy grab. Jason hated missions that were supposed to be easy. They were the ones that seemed to always have the shit hit the fan.

Ray and Clay approached the abandoned building and looked at each other. It was a three story building and despite being in the middle of the night, it was hot as hell. "I don't suppose they have a working elevator." Clay joked as they made their way to the second floor.

Ray laughed as they swept the floor, making sure there was no one hiding on that floor that would give them away. They could hear random gunfire and minor explosions off in the distance, but making its way closer to their location which they didn't like. "We need to get to that roof befo…" Ray was cut off as an explosion went off close enough to make the building shake. A grunt from Clay caused Ray to instantly turn around, revealing he was the only one left on the floor.

A portion of the floor had collapsed taking Clay down with it. Ray immediately ran over to the hole in the floor. "Spenser! Hey! Can you hear me!?" Ray called down. No answer. "Come on Clay, answer me!"

Clay heard his name being called, it just took a second for him to respond. "Hmm. Yeah. I'm here. I'm good."

"You sure? That's quite a fall you took there." Ray asked concerned. With the amount of dust, he was unable to get a full visual on Clay, even with a flashlight.

Clay coughed as he breathed in some of the dust. "Yeah. Yeah I'm sure. Just a little jammed up. Get to the, the roof. I'll be right behind you." Clay huffed out.

Right as Ray was about to protest leaving Clay behind, Jason called them over the radio. "Bravo two, Bravo one. You reach that roof yet?" Jason asked.

"Bravo one, Bravo two. That's a negative. Nearby explosion caused part of the floor to collapse, took Spenser down with it. Says he's ok though. Gonna continue to the roof. Spenser said he's right behind." Ray informed Jason, still not liking leaving Clay alone.

"Copy Bravo two. Keep me updated." Jason asks.

Ray hesitantly makes his way to the roof expecting Clay to be right behind him. What Clay didn't realize was that his leg was trapped under a large slab of concrete. He reached for his radio to inform Ray that he was stuck, only to realize his radio was broken. He threw it against a wall out of frustration and then attempted to free himself. The wave of pain that shot through his leg was unbearable. It literally took his breath away and made him even dizzier than he already was. .

He closed his eyes and waited for the pain to dissipate. He must have closed them longer than he had expected to cause the next time he opened them he was no longer alone.

Ray was growing concerned that Clay hadn't made his way up yet. He tried reaching him over the radio, but there was no answer. The sinking feeling in his stomach grew. "Bravo one, Bravo two. Unable to make contact with Bravo six."

"Copy Bravo two, do you have visual on his location?" Jason asked concerned. They had just reached the three men they were sent to retrieve and needed Ray and Clay to clear a path for them to exfil.

Ray shifted his position momentarily to check on Clays location, closing his eyes in disbelief when he saw three men on the floor Clay fell from. "Bravo one, we have a situation. Looks like bravo six has some unexpected visitors."

Jason cursed and kicked the dirt. There was no way in hell he was going to leave Clay behind, but there was no way they could safely get the three hostages to exfil fast enough to get to Clay before the bad guys rained on his parade.

Jason looked around. He was glad a group of marines tagged along for extra support, even though he was against it at first. "Have they hit the jackpot yet?" Jason asked Ray.

"Can't say for sure, but gonna say no. No one's doing any sort of happy dance indicating the won big, but I don't know how long that's gonna last." Ray said.

Jason looked around one more time. "Alright, here's what were gonna do. Trent, take the marines and the three idiots to exfil. Sonny and Brock, you're with me, we're getting our kid back." No one argued and as much as Trent hated being separated from the rest of the team, he understood the reasoning.

Ray easily guided Jason, Sonny and Brock to the abandoned building, while also keeping an eye on Clay's location. The three men entered the building guns blazing, taking out anyone that stood in their way. Cerb barked, wanting to get in on the action, but being held back by Brock until the floor was clear.

It didn't take long for them to take out anyone that stood in their way. During the gunfight, Ray managed to take out the three men on the second floor, while Jason, Sonny and Brock took out the ones on the first.

Once the dust settled, they looked around for Clay, finding no one. "Bravo two, you sure he was down here?" Jason asked nervously.

"Positive, Boss." Ray replied as he made his way over to them.

"Jase, over here." Brock called. Cerb was whining and pulling, forcing Brock to listen. He led him straight to the cement slab that had trapped Clay's leg. A small trail of blood left behind. His broken radio a few feet away and his gun hidden under a pile of rubble, the only signs that Clay Spenser was indeed there at some point, not that anyone didn't believe Ray.

Sonny rubbed his hands over his face and Jason throws his gloves at wall before having a lightbulb moment. "ISR, they're over the building. They had to have spotted Clay being taken." He instantly grabbed for his radio and called Blackburn slightly pissed off that no one informed him Clay was being taken. "TOC, Bravo one, you want to tell us why no one informed us of Bravo six being taken."

Blackburn was taken aback. "Say again Bravo one. Did you just say Bravo six was taken?" They had been watching ISR the entire time. All it showed was the three men Ray saw entering the building.

"Are you kidding me?" Jason asked

"Bravo one, besides you guys, all ISR picked up was three men entering the building. No one has left." Blackburn stated.

That statement sent chills down Jason's spine. All ISR picked up was three men entering the building. The three men that were taken out by Ray. Not the 8 that they took out. "TOC, we took out a total of 11 men. Are you sure ISR only picked up three?"

"Affirmative, Bravo one. We haven't taken our eyes off of it. No one has entered or left the building except for you and those three men." Blackburn's stomach was now it knots.

It was in the moment that Cerberus starting whining and barking again. Everyone raised their guns, not knowing what had his attention. There clearly had to be another way in and out and they were pretty sure Cerb just found it. What they didn't know was if someone had entered while they were trying to figure things out.

They kept Cerb on the leash, but followed closely as he pulled Brock to a hole in the wall, hidden in a far corner.

"TOC, Bravo one. We found a tunnel in the wall. We're going in after our boy." Jason informed Eric.

"Copy Bravo one. Be careful and bring our boy home safe." Blackburn responded.

 **Hope you guys liked the first chapter. I just finished re-watching season one… again, when this idea jumped out at me. What if they didn't get to Clay quick enough in 'The Upside Down' and by the time they got to him he was gone? I changed things up a bit, but that's where the inspiration came for this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

Clay's head pounded as he tried to blink away the blurriness. He could make out the shapes of people standing around him and he only hoped that it was Bravo. He tried to sit up until he felt hands pushing him back down. Too tired to fight against them, he complied and stayed on his back. That's what Trent would have wanted him to do anyway.

He suddenly felt a shooting pain through his right leg again as someone was attempting to lift the concrete slab off of it. He shot straight up, screaming in pain, ignoring the nausea and increasingly dizzy feeling associated with the pain and sudden movement.

Someone roughly covered his mouth and yelled at him in a foreign language in an effort to keep him quiet. It was in that moment that Clay realized this was definitely not Bravo. Before he had any time to react, he felt a pinch in his neck, with the drugs from the needle knocking him out cold within seconds.

/

Brock unleashed Cerb, who judging by his body language, clearly had a strong scent from Clay. Cerb took off following the trail. Judging by how strong the scent was, they had to be close. He looked back to make sure his people were following him, frustrated that they weren't moving quick enough.

They came to one fork in the trail but judging by Cerb's confidence Clay was taken left. Cerb ran to the end of the tunnel, which was only about a half mile from the room they were in, with the team running close behind.

Once they reached the end of the tunnel, they were met with a road with tire marks. "God dammit." Ray cursed out knowing they had just missed him.

"TOC, Bravo one. Tunnel seems to be a dead end. It led to a road but there's no sign of Bravo six. He is gone. They took him." Jason said with frustration.

Everyone at TOC's hearts sank as they listened to Jason's latest update. They knew it was a strong possibility, but they all held out hope that they would catch up and find him in the tunnels. Clearly that wasn't the case. "Copy Bravo one, return to base and regroup. We…" Blackburn began to say being cut off.

"Say again TOC, did I just hear you suggest we return to base without Bravo six?" Jason was confident he heard that wrong. There was no way Blackburn would suggest they return with one of their own missing.

"It wasn't a suggestion Bravo one. Return to base. We will find him." Blackburn ordered with a little more authority in his voice. He hated doing it, but he couldn't have his team running around a city filled with monsters that wanted them dead, looking for Clay, especially since they had no idea where Clay was taken.

The entire team bitched about having to return to base. Not a single one of them liked retuning without Clay, but they weren't given a choice.

As they returned, they threw all of their gear down and went separate ways for a moment. None of them wanted to be talked to. They each needed a minute to themselves to clear their heads, to figure out what their next move was going to be.

Jason didn't waste any time composing himself. He bee lined it straight to Blackburn's office, barged right in without knocking and starting cursing him out.

"Woah, woah, woah! Calm down Jason." Eric yelled.

"Calm down! How the fuck am I supposed to calm down with one of my men missing, who's probably being tortured as we speak!" Jason yelled back.

"Do you honestly think I liked making that call!? That I wanted to! I didn't have a choice Jason. We have no idea where he was taken. I couldn't have you guys kicking down doors in a city where every god damn person wants you dead. If we're gonna get him back, we…"

"When! When we get him back!" Jason angrily cut Eric off.

"I'm sorry. WHEN we get him back. We have to be smart about this Jason. Now, go get the rest of the team. We might have found something while we were waiting for you guys to return." Eric said calmly. He was confident they found something big.

Jason stormed off to find the rest of the team. He felt a little calmer after getting some of his frustrations out and hearing that they might have found something that could lead them to Clay's location. He knew Blackburn was right about bringing them back to base to regroup. That still didn't mean he had to like it though.

As the team gathered in the briefing room, they noticed how everyone was working double time, searching for any sort a clue that could have been left behind, leading to Clay.

They sat down and Lisa began to fill them in. She pulled up a video that ISR had recorded. Its main focus was the location of the building's they were occupying, but when zoomed out enough, it showed a little more of the city.

"We pulled this video from ISR as we were waiting for you guys to return. We believe this is the area where the tunnel ended." Lisa stated.

"Ok, how's that gonna help us find Clay? Ray asked, not understanding where she was going with this.

"Just wait." She said, putting her hand up to stop the protests about waiting, that was about to come from each of the guys. "Right before you reported the tunnel led to a road, ISR caught three vehicles pulling up to that location and then quickly pulling away." She showed the vehicles pulling up on the video, which quickly gathered everyone's attention.

They were able to make out three vehicles. They stopped for about 45 seconds before speeding away. One headed east, while the other two headed west.

Unfortunately, due to the location of ISR, they didn't have full visual of the vehicles. But… they could see enough.

They came to the conclusion that if these were the vehicles that picked up Clay and the assholes that took him, he would be in one of the two vehicles. They were briefly able to follow the two vehicles on ISR before it disappeared out of range, but fortunately for them, they were able to get partial plates as they two vehicles turned a corner.

Lisa immediately began running the partial plates through the database and came back with 19 possible hits. She printed out the possible addresses and as she was doing so, Bravo stood up.

"Gear up guys. We're gonna go get our boy." Jason said.

"Woah guys. Where do you think you're going?" Blackburn asked.

"We have addresses. He has to be at one of those locations." Jason informed him.

"Just hold up. We're trying to narrow it down any way we can. It'll just take a little more time." Blackburn stated.

"He might not have time Eric! At least let us get out there. We can cross addresses off as we go, help speed up the process. If you cross one off let us know. We'll skip it, but I can't just sit around here waiting, doing nothing. We need to get out there!" Jason plead his case.

Blackburn reluctantly agreed and watched as his team geared up and headed out the door.

/

Clay slowly began making his way back to consciousness. The first thing to register in his mind was pain. He tried to remember what happened, but his mind was still so foggy that nothing was coming to him. He finally opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. He was in a small room with nothing but a door and couple of windows with bars in them. Nothing looked familiar to him at all. The last thing he remembered was searching a floor with Ray, which made him worry, where was Ray? Is he ok? He had to try to find Ray.

He tried to shake the fogginess out of his head. Big mistake. It just made his head throb more. He laid back down and took a couple of deep breaths, or at least as deep as his aching body would allow. He had to move and find Ray before someone else did.

Finally, after a little convincing, he tried to stand up. Another big mistake. The pain that radiated throughout his right leg shot up through his entire body. He tried to hold in a scream of pain, but it came out so quick that there was no stopping it.

Before he could even catch his breath, the door swung open and in walked 3 masked men with guns.

' _Oh great. This can't be good.'_ He thought to himself.

Two of the men angrily walked over to him, grabbed him under is arms and stood him up. The movement once again made him want to scream, but this time he was able to hold it in, settling for a painful grunt instead.

It took a few seconds for him to re-catch his breath. He squinted his eyes tightly, hoping that when he opened them the pain would miraculously disappear. It didn't.

He looked down and was able to see he was no longer wearing any of his gear, but had on a dirty old t-shirt with holes in it and a pair of shorts. He already knew he had to have broken his leg, but being in shorts allowed him to see just how swollen and bruised it was. It definitely looked worse than he thought it was.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the men started to move him. He wanted to protest the movement, but he knew there was no use. Protesting would mean having to put his injured leg down, something he was not willing to do. He also knew he couldn't run anywhere even if he did manage to get away.

The two huge men dragged Clay over to the third man, who stood in the middle of the room. The man lifted Clays head up, forcing him to look him in the eyes. The man eyed Clay up and down and could see the pain in Clay's eyes, making him smile.

Clay stared back at the man. All he wanted to do was to ask him where Ray was and make sure he was ok, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

"What are you doing here?" The man asked with a heavy accident.

"I… I don't know." Clay answered.

"You don't know? Wrong answer." The man replied as he punched Clay on the left side.

Clay grimaced at the pain and tried to regain control of his breathing. "I don't… I don't even know… where 'here'… is." He struggled to get the words out.

The man laughed. "And neither does your team. Not yet at least. I'm betting it won't take too long for them to come looking for you though." He grinned at Clay. "And when they do, my men will be waiting, but don't worry, you'll have a front row seat to the show."

Clay's stomach turned at the thought of having to watch his brothers be killed while trying to rescue him. The man's comment also gave him a bit of relief though. He said 'coming to get you' which must mean they didn't have Ray. "They will find me, and they will kill you." Clay said confidently.

"Oh I'm sure they'll find you. I'm actually counting on that, but I'm not the one who's going to be dying today. The man winked and the looked down at Clay's leg. "That doesn't look too good, you might want to get it checked out."

Before Clay had a chance to respond, the man stomped on his injured leg, causing the bone break through skin. Clay briefly cried out until the pain took control, sending him into the welcomed darkness of unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

Jason and the team had managed to cross off two of the addresses on the list before Blackburn contacted him over the radio. "Bravo one, TOC. We believe we may have found a possible location on Bravo six."

"TOC. Bravo one. Go ahead, we're listening." Jason replied anxiously.

"Two of the addresses came back belonging to a small village a few miles into the desert where known combatants are known to hide." Blackburn said.

"Perfect. Send the info over, we'll head there now." Jason replied.

"It's not that easy Bravo one. The village is literally in the middle of nothing. There's nothing to cover you as you approach and the people that live there, they're the worst of the worst. They don't care about anyone but themselves and they hate Americans more than anything. Our best chance is to wait for nightfall. We already have backup en route. You should meet up with them in about 3 hours."

Jason didn't like what he heard. He knew it would take time for the team to get to the meetup locations with their backup, but they would still have to wait for nightfall as it was their best chance of having any sort of coverage. "Copy" was the only response he gave.

"We really just gotta sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for dark?" Sonny asked annoyed.

"Trust me. I don't like it any more than you do, but it's our only option right now." Jason snapped back.

"It'll be dark soon guys. Let's just get to the meet up location and figure out how to get in and out of that village alive." Ray chimed in as the team began making their way to the location.

/

"Chain him up in the courtyard." One of the Somalians said after Clay passed out. "We want him where they can see him and where he can see them."

"You got it boss." The two men said in unison as the dragged Clay to the center of the village.

By the time Clay woke back up, he realized it was dark and that he was now laying outside. He laid there motionless for a minute or two trying to contemplate his next move, but all he could think about was pain.

He slowly sat himself up, wanting to get a good look at his injured leg and as he did so, he noticed the metal chain connected to his left ankle that would prevent him from going anywhere. ' _Like I'd be able to go anywhere anyway'_ he thought to himself as he laid back down to avoid looking at his leg. The longer he looked at it, the sicker he felt.

As he laid there, Clay became lost in his thoughts. Thinking about Bravo and how they said they were going to be waiting for them to come rescue him. He knew he had to do something, he just didn't know what or when.

/

Bravo team met up with their backup in a friendly village close to the village that they suspected Clay to be in. They all hunkered down, planning their attack on the village and retrieving Clay.

Once it was finally dark enough and it was time to make their moves, everyone began the short trek towards the village.

They had split up into two different teams. Jason, Sonny and nine members of the backup team, which included two medics, are going to enter from the south. Ray, Brock, Trent and the remaining eleven members of the backup team, including one medic, are going to enter from the North.

The village was small, only containing a handful of buildings, but that didn't mean they weren't extremely dangerous. As they began to approach it, they started to get an eerie feeling. Everything was so dark and quiet.

"Bravo one, Havoc, be advised, ISR is showing movement on the building to the right of the entrance." Davis advised Jason as they were entering the village. Before Jason had time to reply, gunfire erupted forcing them to take cover.

/

Clay was pulled back to the present by the sound of gunfire. He knew it had to be Bravo coming for him and that if he was going to help, he had to do something now. He propped himself up against the building and started yelling, warning his team about where people were hiding. He had no idea if they could hear him or not, but in his mind they could, so he continued.

After a couple minutes of yelling, and still no sign of his team in sight, his head began to pound again. He could still hear gunfire, so he knew whoever entered the village was still around and he had to try to get their attention. He continued yelling, this time grabbing the attention of Brock as he rounded a corner.

"I got visual! Kids alive, but hurt. Extent unknown." Brock yelled into the radio, letting everyone else know he had a visual on Clay. As he attempted to approach Clay, bullets started peppering the ground by his feet causing Sonny to disappear behind the building again. "Motherfuckers." Brock mumbled under his breath. "They got him surrounded up high! The only way to get to the kid is to take them out!" Brock yelled again, peeking around the building to get another look at Clay.

Clay quieted down, knowing Brock had seen him. He also knew that the sniper or snipers that were keeping his team from getting to him, were in the building directly behind him. He had full trust that his team was skilled enough to take them out, he just needed to try to be patient.

Ray and Trent darted across the alleyway to get to the building directly in front of Clay while Brock and a couple of the marines with them laid down cover. They knew they had to get high if they were going to have any chance of taking the snipers out.

Jason and his crew caught up them as they were about to breach the door. Jason sent a couple of the marines up with Ray and Trent, not knowing if there was anyone hiding in the building. As they went up the stairs, Jason and the rest of the crew joined up with Brock.

Brock filled Jason in on Clay's location and the situation that was going on. Jason peered around the corner, trying to get his own visual on the situation, when more bullets were fired in his direction. "How much longer Bravo two!?" Jason called into his radio. The kid didn't look too hot and he wanted to get to him immediately.

"Just about set. Ran into contact on the way up." Ray stated before a slight pause. "We had two casualties."

Jason punched the wall out of frustration. They had been lucky so far. No deaths but multiple injuries, none that were life threatening, up until this point. He hated losing anyone regardless of if they were on his team or not. Now wasn't the time to lose focus though. He pulled himself together and refocused on the mission.

"Bravo one, Bravo two. We are in position." Ray informed Jason.

"Copy Bravo two." Jason said as he peaked back around the corner to drawl out the snipers.

As soon as they started shooting in Jason's direction, Trent and Ray had visual. They each calculated their shots and took them, taking out the two opposing snipers that were keeping them from reaching Clay.

"Bravo one, all clear. Go get our boy." Ray smiled, while he and Trent still kept an eye on the rooftops,

The ground crew cautiously made their way over to Clay with Jason leading the way. Once there Clay looked up at them and gave a week smile. "Whatcha doing out here Bravo six? Throwing a party without us?" Sonny asked trying to lighten up the tense situation.

Clay didn't reply. He used up the little energy he had left while yelling. His head was pounding, he felt like he wanted to be sick and his leg was a whole different story. He didn't even want to think about it.

The lack of response worried the team, particularly Jason, who immediately stepped away from the group to call Blackburn.

"TOC, Bravo one. We have the kid, requesting immediate medevac."

"Copy Bravo one, medevac is already en route. Should be there in 20 mikes." Blackburn informed Jason.

Jason looked over at the kid. His face was pale, he was covered in bruises, he looked like he had just taken a dirt bath and the sight of his leg made him feel like he wanted to be sick. He couldn't even fathom how Clay felt. He walked over and rejoined the group, telling them that the medevac was 20 mikes out.

The medics quickly began evaluating Clay. He was still conscious, but not very alert. They took note of the bruising on his face, as well as the rest of his body. He was clearly very dehydrated so they started an IV as soon as possible. Their biggest concern was his leg and ankle. His ankle was very bruised and swollen. They saw a piece of a bone sticking out halfway up his shin, with blood, dirt and sand all around it.

They carefully cleaned and splinted his leg the best they could. Clay only reacted to the pain a handful of times before finally letting the exhaustion win.

Sonny cut the chain attached to his left ankle, allowing the medics to transfer Clay onto a stretcher. They began carrying him out of the village, thankful that the medevac was landing as they were doing so. Clay was quickly transferred on to the medevac and as soon as everyone was on a helicopter, they took off.

One of the doctors on the medevac placed Clay on oxygen and added a second IV on his other arm.

Clay slowly started to come back halfway through the ride back to base. He didn't recognize his surrounding and began to panic a little until Jason came in to view to calm him down. "Hey kid. Relax. You're safe. We're on our way back to base." Jason kept repeating, trying to reassure Clay everything was going to be ok.

Lucky for them, the ride to the hospital wasn't too long. Sure, it was longer than they would have liked, but it still could have been a lot worse. As soon as the helicopters touched the ground, a team of doctors who were waiting for them to land, rushed towards the one Clay was on and promptly rushed him inside. That left the rest of the team waiting in the waiting room, something they weren't very good at.


	4. Chapter 4

The team entered the waiting room completely mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. None of them were strangers to waiting for doctors to give them updates but that never made the waiting any easier. They took a seat on one side of the room, each occasionally standing up to pace, contemplating what could have been done differently to avoid ending up in this situation. They were all beating themselves up with guilt and no one said a word to anyone.

It wasn't until Blackburn, Davis and Ellis walked in that they quit sulking and pulled themselves out of their thoughts.

"Any updates?" Blackburn asked as he approached his team.

Jason slowly shook his head no before saying "not yet."

Blackburn nodded then looked around taking in the appearances of his team. On the outside, they all looked like they were holding it all together but he knew these guys better than that. They were all beating themselves up.

Davis walked over towards Sonny and sat next to him. He barely acknowledged her presence. She knew how close Sonny was with Clay and could see him falling apart. She put her arm around him and pulled him in towards her. It was in that moment that Sonny lost control of the tears. Lisa pulled him in tighter, letting him cry on her shoulder while fighting back tears of her own.

Jason stood up and walked out of the room after seeing Sonny break down. He couldn't handle the sight. Blackburn turned around to follow him but Mandy stopped him. "Let me go." She said.

Mandy walked out of the waiting room in search of Jason. She found him outside sitting against a wall, looking up and tears in his eyes. Without saying a word, she walked over and sat down next to him.

After a minute, Jason composed himself enough to look over at her. "I can't lose him Mandy." He said as tears continued to fall.

"You're not going to Jace. He's strong. He'll pull through this. He always does." She tried to comfort him.

Jason shook his head. "You didn't see him. He was so pale and covered in bruises, no doubt has a pretty bad head injury and his leg." He paused as the sight of his leg reappeared in his mind. "That's what has me the most concerned."

"Jason. Look at me." She said sympathetically. "He IS going to be ok. All those things, they heal with time."

"And if they don't?" He snapped back quickly. "His bone… his fucking bone, was sticking out of his leg for God knows how long. What if it's infected? He could lose his leg… hell, he could lose his life!"

"You can't think like that Jason! He needs you to be strong for him. He needs all of us to be strong for him. It could very well be a long, tough road for him, but he has us and he will get through this. You have to believe that." Mandy proclaimed.

Jason sat there with his head in his hands taking in Mandy's words. He knew he had to be strong, which was exactly why he was ok with being weak now. He had to get all of his doubts and fears out of his system so that by the time Spenser was out of surgery he COULD be strong. "I understand all that Mandy, I do. I just need to go through all the possible worse case scenarios in my head that way if something does happen, I'm prepared."

Just as Mandy was about to reply, Brock walked out with Cerberus for a bathroom break and to inform them that a nurse was just telling them that they were finishing up with the surgery and that a doctor would be out with an update shortly.

Both Mandy and Jason took a sigh of relief knowing the surgery was just about finished. They stood up, waited for Cerb to do his business and then the four of them made their way back inside.

It wasn't long after they sat back down that the doctor walked in. As soon as he did, everyone stood up eager to hear the update.

"There's good news and there's bad news. I'll start with the bad. His right ankle was fractured and dislocated in two places but we managed to screw it back together. He did, as you are all aware, have a compound fracture of the tibia. We were able to successfully reset it with a plate and a couple screws. Unfortunately we don't know how long it was exposed. This could determine the severity of the infection." The doctor stated.

"Does he have an infection already?" Trent asked before the doctor could continue.

"He has begun to show signs of an early infection, but we cleaned the infected area thoroughly and started him on the strongest antibiotics we have. Now, with that being said, there is still a very high chance that we will have to go back in for more surgeries to fully get rid of the infection." He said and put a hand up to stop all the questions that were coming his way. "But, it does appear that despite everything, we still managed to catch it pretty early. We do not believe it was exposed very long, maybe two to three hours tops. We are going to keep a very close eye on it and stay on top of it. I can assure you that. Now for the good news. Besides his leg, he has no other broken bones. He does have some pretty severe bruising throughout his body, but nothing else is broken."

"His ribs, none of them are broken?" Trent asked, not fully believing the doctor after seeing how bruised his sides were.

"He definitely has a few bruised ribs but none of them are broken." The doctor announced.

"What about his head?" Jason asked. "He seemed pretty out of it."

"We definitely suspect a concussion, but we won't know the severity of it until he wakes up." The Doctor said.

"Which will be when?" Sonny asked.

"We have decided for right now, the best course of action is to keep him sedated for the next day or two.

"When can we see him?" Jason asked.

"He's being moved to a room now. I'll have a nurse come get you all once he's all settled. Any more questions? The doctor asked. When nobody replied he thanked them for being patient and left the room.

Everyone felt pretty defeated after hearing the doctor give the update. They all knew an infection could be very serious. On the other hand they also felt a bit of relief. Relief that they caught the infection early. Relief that besides his leg, he was just bruised up and had no other broken bones.

For the first time since finding Clay, they all felt hopeful. Was it going to be a smooth and easy road? Not at all, but they are going to be there for him and get him through it.

As promised, a nurse came to retrieve them and take them to Clay's room. She informed them that despite being sedated, he was not fully in a medically induced coma. It wouldn't be abnormal for him to open his eyes from time to time, but to not expect much more than that until they took him off the sedation.

Once they entered the room they saw Clay sleeping. They had him on oxygen, multiple IV lines and his right leg was heavily bandaged up to his knee.

None of them wanted to let Clay out of their sights that night. They all settled in to the uncomfortable plastic chairs they have and prepared to spend the night. They were accidentally woken up a couple times throughout the night by nurses who came and went, doing their routine checks, but quickly fell back asleep once assured that everything was still ok. That was… until it wasn't.


	5. Chapter 5

Around 3 AM during one of the routine checks, the nurse noticed a glimmer of sweat on Clay's forehead and a slight shiver throughout his body. His breathing became hitched and his vitals were higher than she was comfortable with. She looked around the room. Jason and Brock were awake and could sense something wasn't right by her body language.

"The infection?" Jason asked.

The nurse nodded before quickly leaving the room to get the doctor.

Once the nurse was gone, Jason and Brock stood up and walked over towards Clay. As they did so it drew the attention of Sonny. "What's going on with pretty boy?" He asked in a slightly concerned tone.

"Looks like the fever kicked in from the infection." Brock answered.

Not liking Brocks answer, Sonny stood up and also walked over towards Clay.

At this point, the entire team was awake, concerned and standing by Clay's bed.

Once they looked closer they noticed his eyes were open, or at least slightly open. His look of pain was clearly written all over his face.

"Hey! Clay! Look at me man. Tell me what's going on." Jason said even though he knew he probably wouldn't get an answer.

As expected, Clay didn't answer. He didn't even acknowledge they were there.

Next thing they knew the nurse returned with the doctor. "What's going on with him?" Jason demanded from the nurse.

"We need to run some tests. I'm going to need you guys to step out of the room for now." The nurse politely ordered.

"What!? No way! We're not leaving him!" Sonny jumped in.

"It wasn't a suggestion, now please step out!" She said with a little more authority. "It won't take long. I promise as soon as we're done we will come get you."

Jason glared at the woman, who was glaring right back at him, trying to get a good reading of her. Finally after a few tense seconds, Jason realized she wasn't messing around. The longer he stood there arguing with her, the longer it would take for them to start running tests. Without saying a word, he angrily turned around and walked out of the room and stood in the hall right outside Clay's rom. The rest of the team followed.

They all paced around the hallway while they waited for the nurse to allow them back in the room. As promised, it didn't take long.

As they re-entered the room, the first thing they noticed was that Clay's nasal cannula had been replaced with an oxygen mask.

Jason's glare immediately went back to the nurse. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

"The infection has begun to progress. He does have 102.4 fever which we're a bit worried about, as a result his breathing became fast and shallow. We did run a couple of different and as soon as we get the results back, we should know if we have to go back in or not."

"And if you do?" Jason asked.

"Then we'll schedule the surgery for first thing in the morning. For now though, it's important that he get as much rest as possible. We've made him as comfortable as we can. I suggest you all do the same." She suggested before leaving the room.

Jason let out a slight laugh. He had a feeling they were all going to stay up for the remainder of the night to keep an eye on Clay, and that's exactly what they did.

Every now and then he would somewhat wake up in pain and cold sweats. He could feel something on his face but every time he attempted to lift his arm to figure out what is was, he was either too weak and tired to reach it or was gently stopped by someone next to him telling him it was ok and to leave it alone.

As 6 AM rolled around Clay started growing irritated. He didn't understand where he was or what was happening. The last thing he remembered was sitting against a building outside with his team standing around him.

Everyone on Bravo team felt terrible. Seeing their brother laying in a hospital bed in pain and not understanding what was going on, hurt. All they wanted to do was help. They would try explaining, but every time they did, Clay either didn't stay awake long enough or it just didn't register in his head.

Once the clock hit 7 AM, the doctors re-evaluated Clay. They decided the medications weren't strong enough and that they were going to move ahead with the second surgery.

Bravo felt broken. They knew there was going to be multiple surgeries, they just weren't expecting the second one to happen so soon.

One of doctors informed them that it should be a rather quick surgery, compared to the first one, as long as everything went according to plan, while a different doctor prepped Clay for surgery. Once he was all prepped, Clay was wheeled away, once again leaving the team to wait in the waiting room.

After about an hour, David decided she was going to leave and pick up breakfast for everyone. She knew from experience that when Bravo was taking care of one of their own, that everyone, unintentionally, stopped taking care of themselves. She returned just under an hour later with a bag for everyone, with their favorite breakfast inside.

The doctors were positive they had removed all of the debris and bacteria this time around. Before reclosing his leg, they placed a special drain in the wound that would help drain any extra fluids that began to build up, and covered it so nothing else could get in.

Once the surgery was over, Clay was brought back to his room and the team was informed that everything had gone smoothly.

Upon hearing the news, everyone let out a sigh of relief that none of them even realized they were holding. They knew that when it came to Clay, things hardly ever went according to plan. They all prepared for the bad news and were shocked to hear there was none pertaining to the surgery.

Once given permission, they all returned to Clay's room and resumed their positions.

 **Hey guys. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I had a rough week at school and have been sick all weekend. I know it's not my best chapter, but I did the best I could. I know medically, not everything is 100% accurate but I did the best I could with the research I did on the subject. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this far. I promise I'll try to get the next chapter up quicker.**


	6. Chapter 6

_Clay stood up from the bar, peering over at his father. He knew his father had an ulterior motive to wanting to spend time with him, he just never expected him to stoop so low as to try to pry information out of him that Ash knew he couldn't talk about. He walked out of the bar without even saying a word to his father. If he had ever seen him again, it would be too soon._

 _Once he reached his car, he pulled out his phone and called Stella._

" _Hey babe, how was the bar with your dad?" She asked, hoping Ash really had just wanted to spend time with his son._

 _Clay stayed silent, staring out of the windshield of his car. He didn't know how to admit to her that his father was just using him._

 _The silent was all Stella needed to know. "That well, huh?"_

" _I hate him." Clay responded. "I knew there had to be a reason he suddenly 'wanted to be a father.' I should have listened to myself, to you, I just so badly wanted to believe that he actually wanted to spend time with me."_

" _Come home and we can talk about it if you would like?" It was more of a statement but he could tell she was asking IF he would talk about it._

" _Yeah… I'm on my way." He hung up the phone, put the car in drive and headed towards his apartment._

 _He slowly walked up the stairs to his apartment and unlocked the door. Upon entering his apartment, there was no sign of Stella. No sign that she was ever even there. All of her stuff was gone and there were no pictures of the two of them anywhere._

" _Stella?" He called out. No answer. He started walking around the apartment, checking the rooms, still no sign of her._

" _Stella?" He called out louder. Still no answer._

 _/_

The team had finally decided to take shifts staying with Clay after his surgery. Jason and Trent took the first shift, which was pretty uneventful. Sonny and Ray had decided they would take the second shift.

"Stella?." Clay mumbled through his fever, muddled mind.

"Hey. Clay. It's just a dream buddy." Sonny nudged his shoulder trying to snap him out of it while looking over at Ray. The last thing Sonny wanted was Clay thinking about Stella. He was finally starting to move on, he couldn't afford the mental setback this could cause.

"Stella?" Clay mumbled again.

This time Sonny nudged him a little harder. Clay slowly opened his eyes about halfway, looking straight at Sonny. Sonny could easily read his face. He was in pain and clearly confused. "Do you remember what happened?" Sonny asked him.

Ray stood up from his seat and walked over so that he was standing next to Sonny. Clay watched him make his way over and looked around the room. It didn't look familiar. He drew his attention back to Sonny and slowly shook his head no.

"Do you know where you are?" Ray asked next.

Clay looked around once again, thought about it, shook his head again and then in a somewhat raspy voice said "Where's Stella?"

Ray and Sonny looked at each other again. They didn't know how to answer Clay's question or if they even should.

"Clay, you're in a base hospital in Somalia." Sonny tried to dodge the Stella bullet, hoping his answer would satisfy Clay for now.

Clay looked even more confused, almost as if none of the words Sonny just said, registered in his mind. "She was… she said she would meet me here." He practically whispered.

"He's not making any sense." Ray said to Sonny. "I'm gonna go get the nurse."

Sonny nodded his head at Ray's words without taking his eyes off of Clay. Once Ray was gone, Sonny tried to break through to Clay. "Hey buddy, where was she supposed to meet you?"

"Here. My place." He whispered again, now practically fighting sleep.

"Clay, man. You're in the hospital halfway across the world. We're not at your place." Sonny was growing concerned.

"But she said… and Ash… we were gonna talk… about it." Clay mumbled.

Just as Sonny was about to respond, Ray and the nurse walked back in the room.

"Thank god. Nurse, he's making no sense. He thinks he's back at his place and is talking about his ex-girlfriend and asshole father." Sonny informed her, even though Ray already did.

She quickly took his temperature and while waiting for it to read, checked over his other vital. Once the thermometer beeped she looked at it. "102.6, only slightly up from last time which, believe it or not, is good news. It means the second surgery was most likely successful and that they got most, if not all of the infection. The confusion is likely a combination of the fever and the medications he's on. It can be quite hard to tell the difference between a dream and reality. My guess, he had a dream about it, woke up and thought he was still in the dream."

"How long will that last?" Ray asked.

"Depends. Could be a day or two, could be longer. It depends on if the surgery really was successful or not." The nurse answered.

"Well when will we know? Sonny asked.

"I'd give it a day. If the fever maintains or breaks, then the surgery was successful. If he gets worse or the fever goes up, chances are they missed something and will have to go back in again."

Sonny and Ray looked back down at Clay who was now sleeping again. They hated this. Having to just sit there and wait, not being able to do anything to help. It was hard, and no matter how many times they've had to do it for one another, it never got any easier.

The nurse left once Sonny and Ray were done asking questions but assured them, they were keeping a close eye on him. The two men just sat there in silence, neither one of them willing to take their eyes off their brother.

/

 _Clay was woken up by a loud knock on the door. He slowly stood up from the couch and made his way over to the door. He looked through the peep hole on the door and saw two men in uniform standing on the other side of the door. Confused, he opened the door to find out who they were._

" _Hello?" He said._

" _Are you Clay Spenser?" One of the large men asked._

" _Uh, Yeah. What's this about?"_

" _We have reason to believe that you leaked crucial information about past missions, which could be dangerous to our national security. We're going to need you to come with us." The other man said sternly._

" _What!? No! What is this about? I haven't told anyone, anything about missions." Clay tried defending himself._

 _He wasn't lying. He never told a soul about the missions he went on. Sure, he would tell Stella where he was from time to time and let her figure out what the mission was from the news or something, but he NEVER went into details about it. Ever. He honestly had no idea what these men were talking about. And then it hit him: his father's damn book._

" _Is this about Ash's book? Cause if it is, that information he got. It wasn't from me."_

" _We need you to come with us, sir." They didn't care what Clay had to say. They had specific orders to bring him in for questioning. It wasn't their decision to decide if Clay was telling the truth or not._

 _Clay refused to go with them. He went to slam the door in their face when one of the men blocked it with his foot. The other man pushed the door wide open, resulting in Clay's fist making contact with the man's face. The result: a brawl between the three men in Clay's living room._

 _/_

After Brock and Blackburn returned to relieve Sonny and Ray, they could tell something wasn't right just by the looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Brock asked concerned.

"He woke up a few hours ago. The fever and drugs have him so confused the poor kid thought he was back at his place in Virginia Beach. Kept asking where Stella was and mentioning Ash. Nurse said it's pretty common and didn't seem overly worried about it." Sonny informed them.

"His fever went up slightly too, from 102.4 to 102.6. The nurse wasn't too worried about that either. Said if the surgery wasn't successful then the fever would have been much higher." Ray added.

"So the surgery worked?" Eric asked.

"Looks like it. We should have a better idea tomorrow though, if he improves or not." Ray said.

"Does Jason know?" Brock asked.

Both Ray and Sonny shook their heads no. "We didn't want to worry him yet. He's been running on E and needed rest. I'll call him now, but we aren't leaving." Ray responded.

Brock and Blackburn understood. They also had a pretty good feeling that once Ray made the phone call, this room was going to be full again. The whole team would return and no one would be willing to leave until they knew Clay was going to be ok.

As expected, Ray returned and informed them the rest of the team was on their way.

Once everyone arrived and got settled in Jason asked for a more detailed update than the brief one Ray gave over the phone.

Ray started to explain when suddenly Clay's heart monitor began to beep quicker and quicker. He started groaning, grunting and mumbling and thrashing his body around.

"Hold him down! He can't handle more damage to that leg!" Trent urged as Brock, Jason, Sonny and Ray each grabbed a limb to try to keep him from bumping his leg and pulling off the wires and IV's attached to him.

A couple of nurses came running in just as Clay started waking up and settling back down. He didn't understand why he was being held down or why they all looked so concerned.

"What happened this time?" The nurse asked as she reattached one of the loose wires. Luckily, he didn't manage to pull out any of the other tubes or wires.

"Think he had another dream, couldn't make out what he was saying though." Sonny answered.

The nurse then began checking him over, especially his leg, to make sure he didn't cause more damage to anything.

"What's going on?" Clay whispered.

"You had a dream and starting throwing yourself around. Just making sure you didn't hurt yourself any worse." Blackburn told him.

Clay lifted his eyebrows. He felt the pain. It was everywhere. _Was it possible to feel more pain? Where were the pain meds?_ He thought to himself.

Noticing he seemed to be a little more with it, the nurse asked "Do you know where you are?"

Clay looked over to her. "Hospital."

Everyone, especially Sonny and Ray, felt a weight lifted off their shoulders with Clay's answer.

"Do you know why?" Jason asked as the nurse once again took Clay's temperature.

Clay nodded his head. He wanted to verbally answer, but he was growing more and more tired. He didn't have the energy for his paragraph long answer that he knew the team was looking for. They wanted answers about what happened before they found him. He fully planned on telling them, he just couldn't manage it right now. He quickly found himself falling back asleep.

"101.2, fever's going down. He's lucky you guys were here. He could have done himself a lot of damage if you weren't. Do you plan on staying?" The nurse asked.

"You couldn't kick us out if you tried." Jason half joked.

"That's good. Hopefully it was a onetime thing. If you guys have to leave, be sure to let one of us know. We may have to put him in restraints for his own safety if it continues to happen."

"That won't be necessary. We're not going anywhere. We got him." Jason informed them.

"He's lucky to have you guys watching over him." The nurse smiled.

"I think we're the lucky ones. He saved our asses more times than I can count." Jason smiled back. He knew it was going to be a long road to recovery but there wasn't a doubt in his in mind that Clay would be back on his team.

 **Thank you everyone who liked and reviewed this story. It was definitely harder to write than I first anticipated. I felt like this was a good place to end it, otherwise it probably never would have ended haha. I hope you all enjoyed it**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright. You guys win :) You wanted another chapter, you got another chapter. I tried my best not to try rush the ending so hope I did ok. I promise this is really the last chapter though. I hope you all enjoy it!**

Each day that went by, Clay seemed to get better and better. He was still sore and his leg constantly throbbed, but a few days after the second surgery, the fever officially broke. About a week or so later, the doctors decided Clay was well enough to be transferred to a hospital back in the United States.

The flight back to Virginia was rough. He felt every little bit of turbulence and movement of the plane radiate through his leg. He tried to hide the pain from the team, but that was unsuccessful.

"You know they can give you something for the pain, knock you out for a few hours until we land." Sonny offered. Normally he would have tried to make some sort of joke to try and take Clay's mind off the pain and lighter the mood, but he knew there was no use in that.

"No. I'm good." Clay responded. He was tired of feeling groggy and out of it from medications. He'd rather suffer through it.

"No, you're not." Trent blurted out. "You're in pain, your body is still healing. You need to rest Clay. You need to take the meds."

"I don't want them Trent." Clay snapped back. None of them had ever seen anyone, let alone Clay, snap at Trent like that.

Trent kind of took a step back. Clay had never been so adamant about not wanting pain meds before. "Why? What's so bad about taking something that's gonna help ease the pain? Huh?"

"I'm just tired of them Trent. I'm sick of feeling groggy and tired all the time. It's been weeks! I just want to feel like myself again, even if it's only for a little bit." Clay finally admitted.

Trent sighed and closed his eyes. He felt for Clay, he really did. "Listen Clay," he said sympathetically "I get that you're tired of being tired and groggy, but you, you're body needs it. I don't think you understand how close you came to losing your leg, to losing your life Clay! Give your body what it need to heel. I know you're getting antsy and ready to climb the walls, but you have to be patient. The more patient you are, and the more you listen your body, the quicker you'll be back to feeling like yourself. I promise. Now, I know you don't want them, but you're taking them."

Clay stared at the end of their C-17, avoiding eye contact with everyone on the team.

It wasn't often that Trent overrode one of their decisions, so when he did, they listened. Clay reluctantly nodded his head and agreed. He wasn't happy about it at all, until moments later when he actually started to feel a little bit of relief. Before he knew it, he was once again drawn into the relief of darkness, while the rest of the team, especially Trent, felt relief of their own.

By the time he woke back up, he was settled in a room at a hospital in Virginia Beach. He looked around the room, taking in his new surroundings, noticed Trent and Sonny sleeping in a corner. He was glad to see Trent finally get some rest. He wasn't sure how much, if any, Trent had gotten up until this point. It seemed like he was always hovering over top of Clay, making sure he was getting the proper treatment.

Clay knew he was going to be here for a few more weeks, until he was finished with the all the treatments he was on to ensure the infection was in fact gone and stayed gone. It wasn't where he wanted to be, but it was definitely one step closer to going home.

As the days ticked by, he found himself becoming more and more frustrated. He was trying to stay positive, but it was getting harder and harder. He was tired of lying in a bed, staring at bare walls, listening to his team talking about what they did this day or that day before coming to visit. He knew they were just trying to help, to keep his mind off of things, but it didn't help. He wanted to be doing those things. He was bored out of his mind and wasn't sure how much more of it he could take.

The day Clay was finally released from the hospital felt like it would never come, so when he finally got the news that he could go home, he was more than excited. He was still under strict instructions to take it easy and would need someone to temporarily move in with him until he could be trusted on his own.

"I still don't understand why I need a babysitter." Clay grumbled as he was waiting for one of the nurses to bring him the discharge papers.

"Cause you're still on some pretty heavy medications and we know how stir crazy you're getting. Someone's gotta make sure you follow them instructions to take it easy." Sonny stated.

"I can't even put weight on my leg. How much trouble can I get myself into?" Clay argued back.

"Well we ain't about to find out." Sonny smirked.

Clay rolled his eyes, but looked at the positive. At least he was finally going home.


End file.
